Search and Rescue
by Arrow of Aqua
Summary: Anakin Skywalker and the 501st are tasked with intercepting a Separatist warship to get a hold of a top secret device when everything goes wrong.
1. The Mission

Foreword

**I am a great fan of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, although I have had the misfortune of having to move from Ohio to my current home right in the middle of Season 3. This means that I could no longer watch Star Wars on T.V. because I hate watching stuff out of order. Although with my recent trip, I managed to catch up on Season 5 and watch "I Am Legend" both of which leaving me sad with the endings. At the end of Season 5, I thought to myself, "I wonder….Will Ahsoka return?"**

**My return thought was "Of course she will. It's The Clone Wars! The series was pretty much founded by her."**

**Although the thought process led to many thoughts about what would become of her and the series, the following is what I managed to come up with after a few hours (not consecutive, of course) of thought. I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

He awoke to darkness. That was the third time this rotation. Would he ever be able to sleep tonight?

He threw his feet off the bed. He rose to turn on his light.

"Hey, R2, can you run some bio scans? I'm not feeling so well."

R2 beeped what could be only described to someone who doesn't understand mechs as a beep. R2 raised his scanner and scanned Anakin Skywalker. Much to Anakin's expectation, the scans reported that the only thing wrong was his complete lack of sleep.

Anakin put on his Jedi robes and decided to set off to the Jedi Temple in hopes of maybe a bit of a walk would help him despite the fact he knew it wouldn't.

* * *

Anakin parked his speeder at the temple's hanger and walked into the halls going nowhere in particular. He exited the hanger and turned left, the direction of the council room.

"Sir, sir! General Skywalker!"

A clone in a maintenance uniform ran towards him.

"General Windu needs to speak with you, sir. He said it was urgent. I was about to dispatch a couple of 501st to find you until I saw your speeder land at the hanger."

"Alright," Anakin replied with a sigh, "I assume he's at the council room?"

The clone nodded. Anakin was about to turn away when the clone put his hand on Anakin's shoulder. "Sir, I heard about Commander Tano. I feel sorry for you. I really do. The whole time the hunt for the Commander was going on, I never believed she did it. I hope that you can forgive her for her choices though."

The clone paused and scratched the back of his head, looking around as if he was about to say something he shouldn't. "Listen, sir," –another pause- "I was one of the ones dispatched to clean up the mess on the Industrial Pipeline, and I found this."

He reaches for something on his belt on his back and pulls out a padawan lightsaber.

"This is hers, I believe. I would think that you could put it to better use than I could."

Anakin took it and looked down at his former apprentice's lightsaber. "Thank you. I'll take good care of it."

With that, Anakin turned and walked towards the Jedi Council room.

* * *

"I hope I didn't wake you up, Skywalker."

Mace Windu really was a robot of a man. It seemed he never slept, never ate, never talked unless necessary or for reasons of formality.

"No, Master, I have been unable to sleep for the past few rotations anyway. What is it that you summoned me for?"

Anakin looked terrible. He had dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep, his clothes were crumpled, and he seemed to be off balance, which was odd for a Jedi…

"Well, that's too bad," without even a pause, Windu continued. "Anyway, we have intercepted a Separatist transmission and we are sending the 501st in to ambush them."

Anakin stood for a moment.

"Master, I don't think you told me everything. Is there more?"

"Skywalker, this mission is on a need to know basis only. I can't risk having the entire galaxy knowing what the Separatists have created. All you need to know is that what the 501st is obtaining is onboard the ship, _Devastation_. You may remember the _Malevolence_, a Subjugator class starship; they are sister ships. Onboard is a device about the size of an ARC-170. Get it on the transport ship in Hanger 6 and bring it on board one of your cruisers and immediately jump to friendly space. From there you will be met with the 467th legion and they will take it from there."

Anakin nodded.

"But what of the _Devastation_?"

Windu stood from his seat.

"Leave it. The 673rd will deal with it."

Anakin nodded once more.

"So when do I go?"

Windu walked past Anakin.

"You've already left."


	2. Three MIA, Three Minutes In

**Quick Author's Note**

**Before I say anything else, I must apologize for not writing this sooner. I had finals coming up and I needed to study a little bit, so I didn't do everything I typically would've on a normal day, this story being one of the things I cut out of my schedule. Anyway, now that summer is here hopefully I can write a chapter a day, and if not, than every other day.**

**Also if you like this, feel free to check out my **_**Halo**_** story called **_**The Archives**_**. They will be eventually crossing over which is why I'm saying this.**

**With all that out of the way, enjoy the next chapter!**

* * *

The 501st Naval Fleet jumped into the space over Raxus Prime. The atmosphere of Raxus Prime was probably the worst in the galaxy. That was what made it so perfect to build things in secret. This is why the Separatists chose this planet to build the Subjugator-class ship, _Devastation_.

Anakin walked into the main hanger of his flag ship.

"Alright pilots, listen up!"

Pilots from all around stopped what they were doing to listen to what the General had to say.

"We've got an important mission here. We need to get inside this ship."

A rookie pilot, Vulture, raised his hand.

"Erm, sir? The _Devastation_ has ion cannons. How are we going to get inside?"

Anakin looked at Vulture.

"That's your job," Anakin paused and looked at everyone around him. "Alright, there are two groups. The bombers and the boarding ships. We have stolen some Separatist boarding ships to board them, so all 501st troops will either board those or the Republic Gunships to get inside the ship. Now the bombers will be Y-Wings, and will have ARC escorts to defend them. The Y-Wings will get to the Ion Cannon along the port side and fire torpedoes to render it useless. Then, I want all Y-Wings back in the hanger to prepare for jump. All the ARCs I want to remain out there until the package is out of the _Devastation_ and back here. Any questions?"

Again, Vulture raised his hand.

"How long will this take?"

"If everything goes right, we should be jumping to friendly space in 60 minutes," Anakin looked around. "Anyone else? No? Dismissed."

* * *

Rex walked up to Anakin.

"Sir, are we really not sticking around to finish the fight?"

"I told you, Rex. This is a mission that the Republic is using three legions to pull off. I think you should take a moment to think about it. The Republic is using three legions here when they could be on the front lines, winning the war. Let that sink in Rex. We don't want to mess this up. We, for once, are following orders as they were told."

"I understand sir, it's just…. so unlike you."

Anakin sighed.

"War changes people Rex."

* * *

Anakin boarded the second Separatist ship in the hanger, R2, Rex and Appo following behind him.

"Alright, guys, listen. The thing we're getting is extremely dangerous. Watch your gunfire around it."

The ship lifted from the hanger, and flew full speed to the _Devastation_. And as the ship hurtled to the enemy, one thought went through all three human heads at the same time: "What are we getting?"

"Sir," Appo started to say, when the ship rammed full speed into the enemy ship, sending everything and everybody forwards.

The claws of the boarding ship stretched outward and the door to the ship opened. Into an abyss. They had hit the ship in the most inconvenient spot. The elevator shaft.

Appo moved to the edge of the ship and looked up, then down, before turning around.

"Sir, I can't see anything up or down; there are some cables or something in the way above us, and below is a deep, dark pit."

Anakin looked at Rex and back at Appo, before saying, "I've got an idea but, I don't think you'll like it."

"What is it sir? I'm sure I can handle it."

Anakin looked at Rex again.

"I'll use the force to lift you up so you can see what's above."

Appo nodded but Anakin sensed his discomfort, and Anakin knew why. His other experiences with the Force were with the Sith, and the one Jedi he had been with actually had turned rogue and/or insane. So naturally Appo was a bit nervous.

Anakin lifted Appo, and slowly sent him out into the elevator shaft. He looked up and saw what he thought looked like a roof but was too far away to tell for certain. He looked along the walls of the shaft. He saw nothing. No doors, no windows, not even an elevator. Or did he? He looked back at what he thought was a roof. Was it just him or was the roof easier to see? He waited. Yes, it was definitely getting closer.

"Sir, there's an elevator coming!"

Anakin tried to pull Appo back, but lost focus due to a sudden shake of the ship, and dropped Appo.

"No!"

Appo dropped from view. Anakin needed a plan or Appo would die. Quickly he wracked his mind for an idea.

"Rex, the elevator is about to go past we need to jump on to it, maybe we can get Appo up through the emergency hatch on the bottom and up into the elevator."

It was a great plan, it really was. There was just one slight issue. The claws of the boarding ship were sticking into the elevators path. And as the elevator plowed into the first claw, the boarding ship was rotated slightly downward, creating a vacuum breach. Rex and Anakin tried to hold on, but Rex lost his grip and slipped into space, with R2 following closely behind.

"No!" Anakin shouted as the _Devastation_ recognized a hull breach, and quickly activated a stronger vacuum, for sucking in any lost crew members, and activated a ray shield to stop the breach.

Anakin flew into the far wall and was knocked unconscious, then started a fall down that was likely to end his life.


End file.
